Mon Appartement

Ma chambre: we live on the ground floor, and those windows open up onto a little garden with a big hedge of ivy that separates us from the street.


Margaret and I eat dinner at this little table in the living room :)

View from the salon to the living room.

The salon. Such pretty room, full of antique furniture and paintings. The roses on the coffee table are from my host mom's daughter and granddaughter.

Chateaux

The first château that we visited on Saturday was Chenonceau. Our guide for the weekend (a french art/architecture prof) gave us a run-down of the history, and it turs out that Henri II gave Chenonceau to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. But, when Henri II was killed during an jousting accident, his wife Catherine de Médicis kicked her to the curb (well, actually just to another château).


Traditionally, the surrounding grounds are just as important as the château. Chenonceau is surrounded by a forest, a labyrinth, and two gardens (one designed by Diane de Poitiers, the other by Catherine de Medicis), with this path leading straight to the château.


Next we visited Diane de Poitiers' second château, Chaumont. It's situated up on hill looking over the Loire, and it has a drawbridge! Definitely looked like Cinderella should have been leaning out one of the windows.






The drawbridge leads to a courtyard with 3 sides château, 1 side looking out over the Loire.


The next day we went for a dégustation at a vineyard. We got off the bus and found ourselves among field and fields of grapes on a cold, misty morning. Expecting something similar to our last wine tasting (a brief tour of the distillation machines and wine caves, then trying two different years), we were instead greeted by a rather rotund, merrily inebriated man in dirt/grape-stained clothes. He handed out clippers and proclaimed "Action! No problem!", so we picked grapes. For more than two hours.



But the vendange is more than just a harvest, it's really a celebration. We were picking the grapes side by side with family, friends, neighbors, and other visitors. Then, after a while of picking, we would drink wine and eat bread and hors d'oeuvres.



Then we sat down with the family for a huge picnic!



After three hours of eating, drinking, singing, and dancing, we thought we were finally done with lunch. False. After a tour of the underground caves used for storage with our now-even-merrier guide, we came back up to find champagne and pies waiting for us.



After our morning at the vineyard, we headed to our third château of the weekend: Villandry. This château is surrounded by amazing gardens, each with a different theme or purpose. One of the gardens was the Love Garden, another a vegetable garden, herb garden, water garden, sun garden, etc.





On either side of this moat are grape vines. Since its the season, they were ripe, delicious, and irresistible.

La Récolte

Even though its not a New England fall, France has its share of autumnal colors as well. This cornucopia was in the courtyard of the Château Villandry. I think that all of the produce was from the gardens that surround the chateau.


We also participated in la vendange (grape harvest). At a vineyard called Champalou, we helped the family pick grapes! The French love their wine, and love celebrations, so a celebration all about wine was quite an experience. There were lots of neighbors, friends, and visitors helping with the harvest, and we would pick a little, drink a little, pick a little, eat a little, and repeat. Then, for lunch, we had a big picnic outside with the family. It lasted 3 hours, and included numerous bottles of wine, french pastries, and lots of singing.



Most of the foliage turns a brownish color before falling, but there are a few trees like this one that remind me a little bit of home.

Les Fleurs de la Loire

This weekend our group took a trip to the Loire Valley to visit some of the many Châteaux and vineyards. This cyclamen was growing throughout the forest surrounding Chenonceau.



Each room in Chenonceau had a bouquet of beautiful flowers. You could smell these Lilies as soon as you entered the room.


One thing that I love about study abroad is that I actually have time to myself. I can take an hour or two for lunch and walk the long way home so that I pass by my favorite parts of the Luxembourg gardens. This weekend I literally stopped to smell the roses so many times that I lost count.

Versailles

On Saturday we took the RER out to Versailles. If you've never been, think huge Château where everything, if remotely possible, is covered in gold. My favorite room was the one above, which had the most light out of any of the rooms and the décor was all turquoise, gold, and white. I felt like I was inside a Tiffany's box :)

I also loved the Chapel de Saint Louis à Versailles. It was huge, open, and very bright, and the ceiling was incredible.

My favorite part of the Jardin - La Fontaine de Marie de Medicis.

My walk to school: the Luxembourg Gardin

Every morning to get to class at Reid Hall I get to walk through the Luxembourg Gardens. It is so pretty right now with the leaves starting to fall, and it's a great place for people watching. There are always so many people jogging or walking with their kids. There are tennis courts and playgrounds and an area where older men play pétanque (kind of like bocce). The trees are all planted in straight lines and there are so many benches interspersed where couples love to sit.

You're not allowed on the grass, but people move their chairs to face the sun, and just sit there for hours talking and watching the world go by.

And for Nuit Blanche, a big city-wide art festival, there were a couple exhibits in the Garden. This HUGE disco ball was hoisted way up in the air by a crane, and projected reflections all around the gardens and the surrounding buildings that night.